ST 3220 (Hints) – Big Dave's Crossword Blog
View closed comments 

ST 3220 (Hints)

by Senf  

Sunday Telegraph Cryptic No 3220 (Hints)

Hints and tips by Senf

+ – + – + – + – + – + – + – +

A very good Sunday morning from Winnipeg, where, across the Province, it has been considerably cooler but it hasn’t stopped the stormy part of a Prairie Summer.

For me, etc, Dada not very friendly today, although there are four reasonably helpful long ‘uns, shortish on anagrams again, four (two partials), one lurker, and no homophones, – all in a symmetric 28 clues; with 14 hints ‘sprinkled’ throughout the grid, you should be able to get the checkers to enable the solving of the unhinted clues.

Candidates for favourite – 22a, 2d, and 7d.

As is usual for the weekend prize crosswords, a number of the more difficult clues have been selected and hints provided for them.

Don’t forget to follow the instructions in RED at the bottom of the hints!

Most of the terms used in these hints are explained in the Glossary and examples are available by clicking on the entry under “See also”. Where the hint describes a construct as “usual” this means that more help can be found in The Usual Suspects, which gives a number of the elements commonly used in the wordplay. Another useful page is Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing, which features words with meanings that are not always immediately obvious.

A full review of this puzzle will be published after the closing date for submissions.

Some hints follow:

Across

1a Having bother with nerve, might one be tucked into bed? (3-5,6)
Combining (having) a (3,5) term for (liquid) bother and (with) a synonym for nerve.

10a Close-fitting jackets on very soon? (7)
A single word term for (uncomfortably?) close-fitting contains (jackets) ON from the clue.

12a President‘s laundry not returned (10)
A synonym for laundry and NOT from the clue reversed (returned).

17a Islander Venetian artist has captured I see! (8)
A (16th century) Venetian artist contains (has captured) a two letter interjection for I see.

21a Purposeful action saves time at home (10)
A type of action contains all of a synonym of time (period) and the usual two letters for at home.

24a Legal dispute was resolved by union: fired up about that (7)
An anagram (resolved) of WAS (oh dear) and (by) the single letter for Union all contained (about that) by a three letter term for fired up.

26a Everyone’s cards added to pile, each must make a contribution (3,5,2,4)
Lego time – a synonym of everyone, a term for cards held by players, and a (2,4) phrase equivalent to added to pile (of cards).

Down

1d Where problem might flare up with inflamed pimple (7)
A synonym of inflamed and a synonym of pimple.

4d Catch a percentage, half of nets hauled up (6)
A single word term equivalent to a percentage (of) and half of NETS (I’ll leave you to decide which half) all reversed (hauled up).

5d Bury the first of combatants, massacred in slaughter (8)
An anagram (massacred) of BURY THE and the first of Combatants.

7d Immediately shocking action? (9,6)
A double definition(?) – the illustration supports the second.

13d Date over, crystal clear? (3-7)
A verbal synonym of date and a synonym of over.

19d Label organ note (7)
An organ of the body, of which we have two, and a synonym of note.

23d Film scheduled for school (4)
The first two letters of one of our favourite film titles and a synonym of scheduled.

Quick Crossword Pun:

WHIST + TEARIER = WISTERIA

Could new readers please read the Welcome post and the FAQ before posting comments or asking questions about the site.

As this is a Prize crossword, please don’t put any ANSWERS, whether WHOLE, PARTIAL or INCORRECT, or any ALTERNATIVE CLUES OR HINTS in your comment.

Please read these instructions carefully – they are not subject to debate or discussion. Offending comments may be redacted or, in extreme cases, deleted. In all cases the administrator’s decision is final.

If you don’t understand, or don’t wish to comply with, the conventions for commenting on weekend prize puzzles then save yourself a lot of trouble and don’t leave a comment.

The Animals only number one single and I was somewhat surprised to find that it was number one for only one week starting on this day in 1964.  This is from an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, in the USA; one of best things of this is that Mr Sullivan insisted on live performances – no lip syncing when it was still called miming:

107 comments on “ST 3220 (Hints)”

  1. Very enjoyable indeed. I’ve ticked 10,22&24a plus 13d but could have mentioned several more.
    Many thanks to Dada and Senf.

  2. Good honest Sunday puzzle even if I did think that a couple of clues were a trifle stretched, namely 14a and 7d. Apart from that little moan, a very enjoyable and satisfying one to finish, favourites today for me were 17a and 13d. Many thanks to our setter today for this fun offering.

      1. My newspaper doesn’t have 14a and tells me that 15a is 6 letters. This is the first time I’ve come across this error in the Telegraph. Can someone tell me the clue to 14a?

  3. What fun :good: – N.E. corner was last to fall. 6d ‘player’? hmm, I guess. 5d is all out favourite 17a, 18a , 19d honourable mentions and 8d a great giggle :wacko: .
    14a is stand out hardest clue, at least in my print edition (where is it??) :D

  4. A very pleasant and thoughtful puzzle for a Sunday morning that was a good mixture of straightforward and more tricky in places. Putting the wrong answer in 18a didn’t help with solving the last couple in the NE corner, but that apart, it was plain sailing. 13d proved to be my favourite of many.

    Thanks to Dada and Senf. Now another nerve-jangling day of test cricket to listen to.

  5. 2*/3.5*. Good fun but spoilt slightly by having no clue for 14a and the wrong enumeration for 12a in the paper.

    I couldn’t find U for union in the BRB but it is in Collins.

    13d was my favourite.

    Thanks to Dada and to Senf.

  6. My copy of the dead tree version omitted the clue to 14 across “Cardinal’s clear after withdrawing offer”. I like to solve crosswords by pen and paper and sudokus on line. Not the most economical arrangement, but it helped today!

  7. I too have no 14a clue, although 12a was ok. I enjoyed the rest of the guzzle, especially 12a, 1a, 26a and 2d. Thanks to Dada and to Senf for the hints.

  8. Like Chriscross, I have no 14a clue! 12a says it’s 6 but has10 spaces!
    So I’m not sure it’s doable?

  9. Good fun – thanks to Dada and Senf.
    I wasn’t overly keen on the 6d ‘player’.
    My top clues were 10a, 14a, 26a and 13d.

    1. Hi Gazza sorry to be so late, I only got round to the puzzle this morning, but I think the definition for 6d is OK.
      My rookie “tutor” told me that if an article isn’t adding anything to the clue it shouldn’t be there?
      Maybe you saw this and still thought the definition was poor.
      That said the clue reads dreadfully.

      1. I thought that the indefinite article was needed to get “something that plays the A note” though I’m still mot convinced that ‘plays’ is the relevant verb (though player is needed for the card-playing surface to work).

  10. Incredibly well constructed puzzle.
    Such clever wordplay.
    An age to get started,
    But when did, steady progress.
    Only help, checking 16d was a
    Certain something, unknown
    To me.
    Many worthy of the podium.
    Winner 13d
    Thanks Dada and Senf, great illustrations.

  11. Thanks for suggestions and actual clue, 14a- I’ve also looked up the online version and repaired my misprint edition!

  12. Phew that was really tough! 13d & 14a were the last two solved. Lots of hold ups but it now seems very enjoyable. There were a lot of very clever clues – 10a, 22a 16d to pick but a few.

  13. Dada in a tricky mood today but apart from 15a (very poor clue IMHO) all were solvable with perseverance.
    Best clues for me were 1a and 26a.
    Thx to all
    ****/*** (loss of * for 15a)

  14. Not having the clue for 14a held me up until CS revealed it but even with it this was slightly on the harder side. The brain cells heated up somewhat with the extra work. Even so, I did have ticks all over the page with my favourite and COTD being 15a, which, unlike Brian, I thought a clever clue.

    Many thanks to Dada for the challenge – two cups of coffee needed and I’m a slow drinker. Thank you, Senf for providing the hints.

  15. Jolly tricky guzzle today. Still have 18a left. Have an answer but doesn’t make sense – can’t see the soft bit. Oh well. Thanks to all

  16. For me, and I stress for me ⟨Senf™⟩, it was very helpful to solve the four long ones early doors, as they provided plenty of checking letters for this rather tricky guzzle.

    Lovely evening yesterday watching England Women beat Australia in a T20 game. We had to dodge a few heavy showers but a really terrific evening under the floodlights at Lords.

    Thanks to Dada and The Man From Manitoba

  17. ***/**** for me! Very enjoyable and well-crafted puzzle, which jogged along at steady a solving pace. SW corner for me was the last quadrant to hold out, but I was 21a to get it done…

    1. Before anyone else jumps in to try to show their blogging prowess for a PP – a type of (food items/ingredients?) container with the first letter deleted (unopened) and then reversed (sent back) results in a wine.

  19. I felt this one was in the third circle of crosswordland, as it (to me) was using some strained definitions. For example, to me, the answer to 7d doesn’t fit the first word of the clue entirely well and in 23d I wouldn’t normally substitute the second part of the answer for the corresponding word in the clue. Thanks to Senf for the hints. If you read this, might I respectfully suggest that you have a look at the hint for 19d as I think you probably meant to use the word from the clue rather than the one in the answer.

    1. Thanks for the nudge on 19d, now corrected. I don’t seem to firing on all cylinders last night and this morning.

  20. Late in today, just been one of ‘those’ mornings! Not my favourite puzzle from our Sunday setter but I did rather like 1&26a plus 13d.
    Senf’s review took me back in time – I well remember my gran tucking exactly that sort of 1a into the bed whenever I stayed at her house and then fast forward to a family holiday on the Isle of Man when I was about 15 and went to see The Animals playing at a venue in Douglas. The carefree days of youth!

    Thanks to Dada for getting the old grey matter ticking over and to Senf for the review and the trips down memory lane.

    1. I’ve never seen a 1a like that. It looks like an old-fashioned blotting paper Whatsit … OK you youngsters, ask me what blotting paper is.

      1. We have one sitting on the window sill in the porch just like the one in the pic.

          1. 1a. The amount of rain in The Marches over the last couple of days would devour blotting paper.

            I remember have blotting pads on the desk. Sometimes they were leather bound and quite decorative.

      2. A 1a is probably slightly heavier than ‘an old-fashioned blotting paper Whatsit.’

        We used to have one many many moons ago. As I recall, it was dropped onto the stone kitchen floor and the floor won!

      4. My mother-in-law had one, but then she had a house full of antique stuff, never replaced or tossed anything away while it was still working.

  21. Further to the subject of AI coming up with a cryptic clue, I asked chatGPT to do just that. It came up with this

    “In a spiral, I conceal a hidden gem (6)”

    I will be very surprised if anyone solves it.

      1. I would be interested to see how you parsed that, Gazza. No, not zircon.
        Bizarrely, the answer has only four letters. It is supposed to come from a six letter word that the clue gives. I’ll post the solution and explanation later.

        1. My parsing doesn’t really work at all but I was thinking that zircon is hidden in zirconium. The chemical symbol for zirconium is ZR – insert I in that to get ZIR then add the first bit of CON. Total nonsense really.

        2. Now you are being a tease – there are six letters but there are only four ? doh.. lol

    4. Ok, here is the answer together with the “explanation”. If any of you can make sense of it please let me know because it’s gobbledegook to me.

      Solution: Opal

      Explanation: The clue indicates that we need to find a six-letter word. The phrase “In a spiral” suggests that we should look for a word hidden within another word. The word “I” acts as a placeholder for the hidden word. Finally, “conceal” implies that the hidden word is obscured within the remaining letters. Putting it all together, we can find the word “opal” hidden in “spiral” to solve the clue.

      Of course! Silly me! :scratch:

      1. Gobbledegook as you say.
        I assume that AI bots will in the not too distant future be able to generate simple charade and contain/insert type clues which work. When they’ll be able to produce cryptic definitions, especially ones with humour, is, I think, somewhat further away.

      2. ahem, far be it from me to brag and put myself above AI but my answer made a lot more sense :D

      3. Opal did cross my mind after you said the answer actually only has 4 letters, only because it is a gem with four letters and three of the letters in ‘opal’ are in ‘spiral’ in the right order. But I discounted it because I could see no intelligible instruction on how to isolate those three letters, still less on how to add the ‘o’. The explanation given by the AI is nonsense (to me, anyway).

      5. Out of interest , Did it give you the clue and answer together or have you ‘reverse engineered’ this and asked chatGPT to solve its own clue?

        1. Reverse engineer that, Pat? Never in a month of Sundays. 🤣
          That is ChatGTP’s explanation.

          I asked for other cryptic clues but they are all just as obscure.

    5. The other day I asked ChatGPT what was the greatest cryptic clue ever written. This was its response…

      One widely recognized and celebrated cryptic clue is the following clue from “The Listener” crossword puzzle, which was published in The Times newspaper in 1930:

      “Anagram of how to search rich boon lost.”

      The solution to this clue is “No more war.” The clue brilliantly disguises the phrase “No more war” by indicating that it is an anagram (“Anagram of how to search”) of the letters in “rich boon lost.”

      This clue is often cited as an excellent example of wordplay, requiring the solver to rearrange the letters and identify the hidden phrase. It demonstrates the cleverness and artistry that cryptic crossword setters strive for when creating challenging and entertaining puzzles.

      1. I put “Anagram of how to search rich boon lost” into Google to see how widely recognised and celebrated it is, and it returned one result: your comment above on BD’s blog! I am reading your comment as indicating that the AI provided the whole commentary after your ellipsis. Do you agree with the AI? I’d be interested to know how ‘no more war’ is derived from the answer.

        1. That’s right, everything after the ellipsis is by the AI. It all seems to be complete nonsense. The Listener puzzle didn’t even move to The Times until 1991 so it couldn’t even get that right!

  22. Not my favourite and a bit of a struggle after yesterday. I should have been quicker on some particularly 24a in view of my background and 17d an answer with which I am familiar. Favourites 12 18 and 26a and 16d. Thanks Dada and Senf

  23. Slow to fall, but did so eventually with those that were difficult to parse turning out to be well-disguised anagrams. Fav clue 16d as I was listening to the sound track whilst solving; what’s the chances? Thank yous to Dada and Senf.

  24. A bit more head scratching needed than Dada has recently asked of us I thought. Lots to like with 5d my favourite although can’t quite see how the last letter of the answer is indicated by the clue. Or am I missing something?
    Hope that’s not naughty step stuff!
    Many thanks to our setter and Senf – you may wish to moderate your hint for19d?

    1. You are definitely not looking at the clue carefully enough, although saying that, I don’t think it is one of his best clues

        1. The only hint I have ‘changed’ is 19d (see Comment 19). The hint for 5d is unchanged from how I wrote it last night.

          1. Sorry for the confusion! The change I was referring to was 19d. The superb hint for 5d explains all!

    3. Senf has given a hint for 5d, from which you should, I think, be able to answer your question.

  25. Completed with one eye on the cricket, which was made more difficult by not concentrating 100% on either! Overall an enjoyable solve & as others have said helped by the 4 long ones.

    2.5*/3.5*

    Fav 3d LOI 18a.

    Thanks to Dada and Senf.

  26. Not our favourite crossword today, spoiled by 12a and 14a (not Dada’s fault), didn’t like 6d at all or fully parse 18a so not too many gripes, it just seemed a bit of a grind compared to the usual Dada offerings. Favourite was 8d. Thanks to Dada and Senf.

  27. The clue for 14 across is missing this week. Telegraph crossword number3220. This is annoying as cannot finish the crossword. Can you supply the missing clue please?

    1. Welcome to the blog. Your request was answered earlier by crypticsue in Comment 3.

      Now, apart from 14a, what did you think of the puzzle?

  28. Tricky for me today and I needed 2 of Senf’s hints to complete it….but it’s Sunday, it’s Dada , what should I expect?
    Overall enjoyable, though.

    Thanks to Senf and to Dada

    Glorious day here today. Sunny with enough breeze to make the temperature right for me. Which is good as it is the gala week fete today.

  29. Not my favourite of Sunday crosswords and not just because I’ve found it really hard!
    I have an idea of an answer for 18d although I have no clue why?
    Either of 8d or 17d is my favourite.
    Thanks to Dada and to Senf.

    1. I found this puzzle quite a grind as another commenter put it. Did you mean 18a? To me, part of the clue didn’t really fit with the dictionary definition of my answer. Perhaps either I’ve got it wrong, or that part of the clue is a fairly subjective take on the answer I got to.

  31. With puzzle was definitely not a friendly one this week from Dada with what I call lots of quirkiness thrown in. However the four long-um’s were great and gave a foothold to get going with.

    3*/3 for today

    Favourites other than the four non ones include 12a, 8d, 17d & 20d — with winner 17d … and maybe things would have gone better if I had been a little 17d as I solved most of it on Saturday pm

    Thanks to Dada and Senf for the hints&blog

  32. If I live to be 100, I’ll never understand how we differ so much when it comes to crosswords. I usually sweat bullets over Dada, but today I had no problems and enjoyed the solve. The only help I needed was to google musicals, I don’t know why, I had all the checkers. The long ones were a huge help, I see we revisit “nerve” again at 1a. I quite like 25a, not to everyone’s taste. I liked the long answers, 13d also amused.
    Thank you Dada for the fun, I wonder if I’ll ever be able to solve another of yours. Thanks Self for your hints and pics, especially the pic at 7d, we’ve been getting a lot of that recently!

  33. I normally do not like Dada’s quirkiness. However for some unknown reason I was on wavelength today and finished in good time. The only query I have is the first word of the 13d. I sort of get it. 24a is my favourite.

    Thanks Senf for your hints. Always useful to check understanding.

    **/****

  34. I have an answer for 14a – a word meaning offer – but can’t work the rest out. Can anyone help? Thanks

    1. Once again, before anyone else jumps in to try to show their blogging prowess for a PP – there is an instruction within the clue to reverse the result of the wordplay to get the answer.

      And, rather than asking for more hints as you usually do, please tell us what you thought of the puzzle.

      1. No offence meant, Senf. I thought it was a good level of crossword, with some interesting clues, some easy and others more challenging. Favourites 13d and 24a which I took a disappointing amount of time to answer,

    2. I got a fairly hefty slap on the wrists yesterday from CS for “over-helping” ( fair enough, no hard feelings ;) ) so your answer is .. I imagine many of us could but, …….we can’t. Err consider the nouns or pos adjectives , context is all, and then how the verb could apply, perhaps not to the supposed sentence sense but to the words – hope I’m in the limits this time

      1. Got the answer from Senf’s last comments but thanks – much appreciated 😀

  35. Another Sunday in hot and steamy South Florida, and yet one member of our community gym is lobbying for a steam room, I kid you not 😊. I wish I could say I finished without any help, but I have to admit I did need quite a bit of help, even though I got all the long answers early on. Some of the trickier ones I would not have got if I sat and stared at them all day long, but good brain exercise nonetheless. LOL at 8d. Thanks to Dada and Senf.

    3. If you look at the thread on comment 3 you will see that Cryptic Sue has given the clue in its entirety.
      Good luck with the solve – let us know how you fared.

  38. Very late to this today and I thought trickier than some. I got there in the end but it was a struggle. Many fun clues, the long ones really helped.

    Many thanks to Dada and Senf for the hints.

  39. Merusa wanted to post this pic but couldn’t manage so I am posting it for her.

    Times were simpler then.

  41. 2 very enjoyable weekend prize guzzles. The eyelids have just about played ball long enough to complete both & reckon a good kip beckons after working 3 long days of tournament golf at Centurion. Great atmosphere & a worthy winner in Cameron Smith so at least Australia came out on top in something today….
    Thanks all

  42. Unlike Huntsman above I haven’t found this weekend’s offerings particularly entertaining but there again both days have in fact been almost completely filled with watching Wimbledon tennis via various goggleboxes (simultaneously!). South was smoother ride than top half and missing 14a clue didn’t help that (thanks CS). Nerve in 1a is making a quick return as often seems to be the case and what would setters do without the 23d school? 3d deity new one on me. Thank you Dada and Senf.

  43. This was challenging with some very clever clues but helped by the four long ones which were worthy of being on the podium as a group. I enjoyed the challenge, almost finished but for one for which there was no hint. Although 12a was said to be 6 letters, the answer was obvious from the clue, and when I had the clue to 14a I was able to get the answer. Fav has to be 22a, so succinct and apposite. Many thanks to Dada and Senf.

Comments are closed.